Pajaro Valley High football coach Kevin Cordova announced Tuesday that he will be stepping down.
Cordova posted a letter he wrote on the PVHS Football Twitter account (@PVGrizzlies).
“Pajaro Valley Football Community, It is with incredible gratitude that I announce my resignation as Head Football Coach for Pajaro Valley High School,” the statement said.
Cordova spent the past four years with the program —three seasons as the head coach and one as an assistant. He finished his final season with a 2-8 overall record and went 2-4 in Pacific Coast Athletic League Santa Lucia division play.
Cordova finished with a 6-24 overall record and went 3-15 in league play as the head coach. He also spent a season under former coach Joe Gregorio in 2016, finishing with a 3-7 overall record and going 1-5 in the now defunct Monterey Bay League.
Cordova said in a phone interview with The Pajaronian that there’s only one way to do a head coaching job and truly felt like he wasn’t living up to those standards.
“There were times this season and coming into the season where I felt like I wasn’t 100 percent committed to it,” Cordova said. “You have to be 100 percent committed when you’re the head coach and you have to be the hardest working person out there.”
Cordova said it’s been quite the long haul trying to build the program to where it is and he believes it’s heading in the right direction. He said some may question why would he leave at a time when the program is in good standing.
“That three year process does take a lot out of you and I think any coach can tell you how much it takes out of you and your personal life to commit that much time to a program,” Cordova said. “But that’s what head coaches do. If you can’t do that you need to walk away and let someone else do that.”
Pajaro Valley athletic director Joe Manfre said he knew for some time that Cordova was leaning toward resignation at the end of the season. He said Cordova brought up some of the hurdles such as not having a home field to play or practice.
“To keep something going like that I think it wears on a person a little bit,” Manfre said. “I think he made a decision and he wants to go with that decision and that’s fine.”
Manfre said he was thankful for the time Cordova spent at Pajaro Valley and how much he taught the students about football.
“Not only football but in life as well,” Manfre said. “And I think when he was there coaching he did a really, really good job.”
Manfre said from the start it was a tough job to keep the program in line. He said when Cordova took over in 2017 there were just 18 players on the junior varsity team and 10 returning juniors on varsity.
This year, the Grizzlies nearly had 30 players on the freshman team. Manfre said he believes Cordova got the students interested in the program.
“I think for his time being here he got kids excited about playing football,” Manfre said.
Cordova wrote in the resignation letter, “Although our program has dealt with the many challenges associated with not having a field to call home for over fifteen seasons, I am incredibly grateful for the student-athletes that faced those challenges head on and walked away from the experience stronger because of it.”
Cordova also thanked the Manfre family for their support and helping build the lower level program. He also thanked the parents that supported their child’s commitment to the program.
Manfre said they’ll start searching for a new head coach within the next couple of weeks to get the process going because nowadays it’s a year-long job.
Cordova said one of the things he enjoyed the most was when coaches from other programs would have sympathy for Pajaro Valley because of their “home field” situation.
“I actually really enjoyed the process of honestly having that chip on their shoulder and being that school that never had a field,” Cordova said.
Cordova said he also enjoyed coaching all the players in the program that were committed from day one.
“I think they’re just kind of special and unique kids that they don’t have everything given to them, they don’t have the facilities,” he said. “The kids that walk out of our program are kids that I really enjoy being around and those kids definitely make it worthwhile… those kids have gotten me through the last three years and I think I’ll have lifetime relationships with those kids that made it through our program.”
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Editor’s Note:This article will be published in the Nov. 15 edition of The Pajaronian.
